Posted: Mon 11 Apr 2005 17:38 Post subject: Is this a scam and what should I do?

I have been contacted by a man from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. He wants to put 30 million USD in my account within 7 days. He tells me he has hired a solicitor and sent me an agreement to sign. He has emailed me 3 times and phoned me 3 times as well. I have told him that he cant have any money. He wants the agreement back signed and says he is not going to ask me for any money at all until the transaction is complete. What do I do. Do i sign the agreement? Where do I stand legally? I am suspicious. I have had 2 more things like this come through. I told the guy that I was saving his emails incase it was all BS.

Sorry Tony2005 but this is a scam - anything that sounds too good to be true is a scam! If you had $30million, would you want to put it into a stranger's bank account?

The agreement will be a fake document, and you can rest assured he has not hired a solicitor.

Just stop communicating with him. Block his email address so he can't contact you again (although he may try and email you from a different address). If he phones again, tell him you've changed your mind and hang up. If he persists, or he gets aggressive, go to the police.

If you signed the document it means nothing legally as its fake. However the scammer is relying on you not knowing this is and use it against you. Although he has promised not to ask for any money until the transaction is complete he is lying to you. What I suspect he will try after you sign the document is that he will say it binds you to assist in the completion of the transaction. Since he has run out of funds to complete it you must now send some of your money, or something like that. Either way you need to cease all communication with him now. I know this isn't going to be easy especially since he has your telephone number; you will may need to change this if he doesn't stop contacting you. Hopefully though this is will be unnecessary if you just ignore him. If he calls put the handset straight down. Don't talk to him. Hopefully he will get the hint and drop you.

Any way the best of luck and I'm glad to here that you didn't get scammed!

Posted: Fri 15 Apr 2005 08:46 Post subject: Help is this real or a scam

Over the past year I have been receiving emails from a Musa Zak of Nigeria - and the Standard Trust Bank - In regard to being the next of kin and I need to know if this is a hoax Can someone help me or tell me where to turn

Welcome to the forum. Yes it is certainly a fraud, but to prove it we need more information.

I assume your next of kin deposited a large sum of money into the Standard Trust Bank and then died horribly on perhaps the Sagbama Expressway or in a plane crash?

I have googled Musa Zak and cannot find this name used previously, but scammers are always dreaming up new names. The best way to prove that this is a scam is to use the bank details. There is a real Standard Trust Bank, but unless there is a crooked employee in the bank, the contact details of your scammer bank will differ. Please post some of the e-mails you have received with their full headers and we should be able to demonstrate that it is a fraud.

If, by some miracle, there is a real bank employee offering you a share of the real funds of an untraceable deceased person, the bank will be very interested in dealing with a criminal who is attempting to defraud them out of large sums of money. In addition, unless you yourself are a skilled international fraudster, the international banking system will track you down and you will be found guilty of money laundering and tax evasion. Far better to involve the bank's own security department in getting the crook arrested, when you will receive a reward of 10% of the proceeds free of all problems. I have never seen anyone collect a 10% reward, because there has never been a real deceased customer of the bank.

Always remember that if something seems to be too good to be true, it is too good to be true.